November 2015

Dean's Doings

I was blessed to be able to take my "summer vacation" in the middle of October this year -- John and I, along with good friends, joined another REI hiking adventure-in southern Italy. We hiked four volcanoes, the Amalfi coast, and Capri, and visited Pompeii and underground Greek/Roman cities in Naples and Catania. It was an incredible trip and provided me with much-needed contact with mother nature!

Now back to work! I am serving on the Academic Affairs Portfolio and Operations Review Committee for the Division of Academic Affairs. The Provost sent out the charge/purpose of the committee to the university community and will be holding a forum this week. This committee will generate information that will increase our understanding of our academic portfolio and data to better inform our decision making moving forward.

Two full days were spent in a WACTE meeting-many conversations about pressing shortages of teachers and administrators as well as a proposed indicator-based approach to approval of K-12 educator prep programs. I also spent a day with superintendents and upper level administrators from the Puget Sound ESD, along with other deans talking about how we can move towards deeper and more sustained partnerships to support recruitment, preparation, induction and retention of K-12 educators, leaders, and support staff. We are planning follow-up events wherein faculty will be invited to engage in thinking through these topics more deeply.

This past week I began to meet with faculty for their annual performance reviews-this is one of the parts of my role I enjoy-learning about, acknowledging, celebrating, and working to support ongoing professional development of individuals! Bob, Brendon and I also began meetings with each program to review enrollment trends and budgets, and explore future initiatives and needs for resources.

Last Friday night I was thrilled to attend a celebration organized by Jian and Jeomja for the 20th anniversary of the TESOL program! Alumni, current students, family members and prospective students joined in the fête! Congratulations Jian and Jeomja! I ended this past week by attending SU's GALA-it is an evening of celebration, recognition, and garnering ongoing (and critical) scholarship support for our amazing students!

News and Updates

Highest Teacher Placement Rates since 2003

Beverley Silver, Educator Career Services Coordinator, reports that the 2015 MIT teacher placement rates are the highest rates since 2003.

91% of the 78 total grads are employed as contracted teachers

Of those who are employed, 69 graduates have jobs in Washington state, and two teachers are working abroad

99% of all graduates are either teaching full-time or working as substitute teachers

Beverley explains that in past years, COE's teacher placement rates could be considered in relation to the placement rates of all other colleges/universities in Washington State. But, since 2010, OSPI no longer compiles or publishes that information which had been a very helpful and informative resource. "However, it should be noted that the OSPI report acknowledged colleges/universities with placement rates of 75% or above, and Seattle University has clearly exceeded that rate this year."

TESOL Celebrates 20 Years

Congratulations to COE’s TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Program, which hosted a 20th Anniversary Celebration for faculty, administration, alumni and current students on Friday, Nov. 6. Approximately 60 people attended. Jian Yang welcomed guests and provided the context for the TESOL program, past, present and future. Guest speakers included:

Sara Legg, M.Ed. TESOL, North Seattle College Instructor, Intensive English Program and Faculty Coordinator, Page One Writing & Language Center

Sean Allen, English Faculty Chair, Pre-college Student Success Committee and Chair, Pre-college Course Coordinator for the Bellevue College English Department, Bellevue College

Ask Me Why I Teach

As part of the Year of the Teacher, this week celebrates teaching. Amy Eva, the College of Education's representative for the Year of the Teacher planning group, explains that faculty were asked to conduct a guerilla event in the classrooms "in the spirit of shaking things up a little and celebrating our teaching." Faculty were asked to "tell your students what you love about teaching for no more than three minutes." Then students were asked to tell what they love about learning. If anyone has memorable moments to share, please send then to education@seattleu.edu.

Graduate Education Council Report

Jackie Leibsohn, GEC representative, shares the following from the GEC:

1) There is a proposed 5% (average) graduate enrollment goal for next year.

2) Please inform Jackie if you have an opinion about whether honor society Phi Kappa Phi should come to campus, or if are interested in being involved.

3) The following new graduate programs are proposed:

Two new master's degrees in the Law School

A master's in human movement science

A PhD in criminal justice research (Jackie notes that this is a research degree and therefore does not impact our Carnegie Mellon standing)

A PsyD in school psychology

From Associate Dean Bob Hughes

News from Research and Online/Professional Learning:

This term, on behalf of the College of Education, Brynnen Ford began a three-year evaluation of a project funded by the Kresge Foundation. Coordinated by Claire Garoutte in Arts and Sciences, this project is developing community-based arts in the new Yesler Terrace community.

From Assistant Dean Brendon Taga

In October, we continued our work on developing admissions and communications strategies and clarifying and developing policies for the College. First, our admissions team, which includes Karen Smaalders, Elizabeth Steeves, and me, has been working on revising and modifying our current communications with prospective students and applicants. We will continue to work with program liaisons to ensure that admissions processes are standardized, but also recognize the specific needs of each program. With our fall College and Graduate Admissions open houses behind us, we look forward to planning a series of recruiting events in winter and spring quarters that help students make important connections with faculty.

As the College's ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Coordinator, I've also been working to enhance student services for students with disabilities. I worked with Carole Schneider, Director of Student Academic Services, to develop a process that ensures integrity with regard to accommodations that faculty provide students. We will be discussing this process in detail at an upcoming faculty meeting and it will be disseminated to programs more widely thereafter.

The College also continues to collaborate at the university level on crafting integrated emergency response plans. This has led to the creation of hallway posters and in the upcoming months, will result in updated emergency "go-bags" and a Loyola Hall emergency response handbook.

Program News

The counseling programs submitted a proposal to the COE Assessment and Curriculum Committee to increase hours for both programs to 90 quarter credits. This move is an effort to comply with national accreditation standards with CACREP. The Community Counseling Program is proposed to be renamed the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program. As the proposal moves through the committees, more information will be provided about the details of the proposal.

The SDA program is exploring undergraduate curricular opportunities this year as part of our work to prime the pipeline into the master's program.

The MIT program has extended its deadline for Spring 2016 and will continue to take applications this month.

Educating Non-Native English Speakers is launching its program with a lunch! The lunch will feature Kerry Soo Von Esch and her colleague, Dr. Manka Varghese, University of Washington, who will lead a discussion on "Building and coordinating university-school district partnerships to improve the teaching and learning of ELL students" on Monday, Nov. 16. The invited educators will discuss how to:

Create partnerships among districts, schools, and universities to improve the teaching and learning of ELL students

Identify areas in schools and districts where universities and their work may be able to support ELL student learning and teachers of ELL students

Learn how to build the capacity of teachers to work with ELL students through the new MEd program at Seattle University and the MEd program at University of Washington-Seattle

Development Updates

Marlene Fuson has been appointed to be the new chair of the Dean's Advisory Council. In her role as Chair, Marlene will work with Dean Sands and Peggy Fine to guide the Council on next steps for community support of the College's strategic plan. She will coordinate the agenda and preside over the Council meetings. Marlene is the former Assistant Superintendent, Puget Sound Educational Service District.

Marketing Updates

New program flyers designed to fit inside the SU Viewbook and conform to new brand standards are now available for all programs. Thanks to all who worked hard until tight deadlines to get these flyers completed.

Facebook and Google display ads (with photos) are now running for many COE programs in addition to the search (word) ads that have traditionally run.

Please forward any web updates to Karen Smaalders or your program admin no later than the end of this week. Transition to a new content management system will mean any updates made after this date will not be transferred to the new website, which is scheduled to go live in December.

SU MarCom will be holding portrait/headshot sessions for faculty and staff, as follows:

Monday, Nov. 16, 2:30-5:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Nov. 17, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Wednesday Nov. 18, 9:30-11:30 a.m.

The sessions will take place in the Media Production Center, located on the first floor of the library. If you would like a new or updated photo, please show up at any time during the sessions. It is first-come, first-served, so please be prepared for a short wait.

For Your Benefit

New Guidelines in Effect for NSF ProposalsEffective January 25, 2016, all NSF proposals will be reviewed under new and updated guidelines. The link to the new NSF guide and a summary of "NSF Significant Changes to the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedure Guide (PAPPG)" is: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappguide/nsf16001/sigchanges.jsp. Substantial changes have been made in the following areas:

Second Fall Workshop with Yarrow DurbinConsultant Yarrow Durbin completed the last in a series of college climate and norms workshops on Nov. 6, working with staff, faculty and administrators to review the draft college norms and lead a discussion on approaches to take if a norm is breached or broken. A committee of staff and faculty will reconvene to review comments from this session and forward a revised copy of the norms to all staff and faculty for approval.

Open Enrollment Ends Nov. 20You have until Nov. 20 to complete your benefit choices in the Open Enrollment period for your 2016 Benefits. Just a little more than half of SU's faculty and staff have completed their enrollments. If you're still receiving e-mail from Human Resources that means your action is STILL required. Remember that those who do not chose benefits will be automatically enrolled in the HSA program rather than the other options. Eligible faculty and staff must enroll online HERE.

Last Day to Donate to United Way Eunice MacGill reminds us that United Way pledges still can be made today. To make a pledge to the United Way campaign, go to www.uwkc.org/seattleu. You can also give by check, cash, credit card, direct bill or payroll deduction. Please contact Eunice for more information.

Take Note

Don't miss this week's issue of The Commons, where COE faculty members Kevin Roessger and Arie Greenleaf are featured on the front page!

Adjunct faculty member in Community Counseling, Danie Eagleton, ’90, LMHC, is a newly elected Board of Trustees member for Crisis Clinic of King County.

On Oct. 28, SDA Alumna Keisha Jackson, MA ’14, and College Success Foundation (CSF) Board of Directors member, presented Deborah J. Wilds, former CSF president and chief operating officer and longtime Seattle University Board of Regents member, with the 2015 Distinguished Service Award at the CSF Empowering Youth Luncheon at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel. Through her professional roles with CSF and the Gates Foundation, Dr. Wilds has provided outstanding leadership and lifelong service to empowering generations of underserved students with the gift of education. In 2013, Dr. Wilds was appointed to the Washington State Board of Education, and serves on several boards and and is active in the SUYI Advisory Board as a community partner. Several hundred guests were in attendance at the luncheon including Seattle University Provost Isaiah Crawford. Dr. Wilds has served in many capacities in Keisha’s life including employer, mentor, graduate school and professional reference, and friend.

As a past International Leadership Association (ILA) board member and former chair of the ILA Global Conference, John Gardiner participated in several leadership planning sessions at the ILA conference in Barcelona. He is part of a global initiative to create a World Institute for Leadership Development in 2016. Gardiner was elected as a Faculty Fellow with the Seattle University Center for Environmental Justice and Sustainability (CEJS) for 2015-2016. Gardiner serves as a founding member of SU President’s Committee on Sustainability and on the Steering Committee of the CEJS. (Also see references below.)

John Gardiner and Maylon Hanold, EDLR alumna (and past dissertation advisee), who is now an instructor in SU’s master’s in sports leadership program, presented at this year’s ILA global conference in Barcelona.

Manivong Ratts chaired a committee commissioned by the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) to update the multicultural counseling competencies for the counseling profession. Their work led to the development of The Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC), which were endorsed by the AMCD Executive Council on June 29, 2015 and also by the American Counseling Association (ACA) on July 20, 2015. ACA is the leading national professional organization with a membership of 60,000 for counselors. Their endorsement signifies the need for the counseling profession to integrate the MSJCC into counseling theories, research, and practices. (Also see reference under publications, below.)

Yamamura, E.K., & Fisher, O. (2015, November). Growing in a University-Community Partnership: The Seattle University Youth Initiative. Research session presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, Western Regional Conference, Oakland, CA

Deadlines

November 16

Sabbatical Apps for 16-17 due to Dean by Nov. 15

Curriculum forms (create a new course) due to Associate Provost of Academic Achievement